Or maybe ironic isn't the word I am looking for. A pedestrian was killed in Edmonton the other day by a train. I don't know the circumstances of this particular accident, maybe there is a good reason why they didn't hear the horn or maybe it was just ignored. Anyways, tragedies like this happen all too often. What I don't understand is why, on the same day, in the same news broadcast,

another town in Alberta is ruling that it is no longer mandatory for the train to sound it's horn at every crossing in that town. It appears to me that the residents think it is a nuisence(?). Now I live right across the road from the train tracks. Yes, it is a nuisence but you get used to it. I have two kids, I don't let them play near the tracks, I practically never let them out of my sight. But I am comforted by the fact that the train blows it's horn in town, if nothing else it is a warning to let you know that it is coming and you had damn well get out of it's way (and scare the living daylights out of my kids so even if they were presented with the opportunity they would never mess around the train tracks in the first place). The power behind it is not something you can stop in an instant. By the time an engineer sees a person in the way it is too late. And now I'm just annoyed at the whole thing so I guess that's just the end of that. 

Hey, what happened to my menu, my fonts and colors and stuff? Oh well, no biggie. Anyways, scrambled eggs. When I was a kid we (my mom) used to cook them in a saucepan. So I never thought thought that there was any other way to cook scrambled eggs. Until I met my husband and found out that I am apparently a freak because I used to cook my eggs in a saucepan. And not only was that weird but it is not a saucepan, but a pot. In his defense my mom , although I love her dearly, is a litttle odd but that's not my fault. Oh, and scales and potatoes refers to fish and chips in husbandese. (And he says he's not the freak)

Well, lets see... I do remember (vaguely) the basketball thing, however I have my own memories. (In no specific order or I will try to get them close to the proper order. There was this guy... he worked at the cafeteria in our high school. I worked on the yearbook. Actually I was editor in my Grade 12 year so I had keys to the yearbook room which was tucked away neatly in a corner of the cafeteria. Anyways it wasn't on purpose at first but I used to hang out there because it was somewhere to go and I didn't really have a whole lot of friends. So this guy would come in and talk to me when he was done working. After a while I would go there just so I could see him.  I also remember trying to be someone he would be interested in, even though it wasn't necesarily who I was. Like I started wearing a jean jacket just because he did. I tried to hang out places where I knew he would go because I wanted to see him. We would sit and he would tell me stories for the whole lunch hour, all stuff about him and growing up and stuff and I just listened.

We had this thing at our school where you were rewarded for good attendance. One time the reward was a trip to the waterslides. But it was like the day before and he got hit in the back if the head (right in that soft spot at the bottom of our head and the top of your neck) and got one doozy of a concussion. Anyways I was in the lineup to get in to the waterpark and he wasn't there yet and I was getting dissapointed because I thought he wasn't going to make it. We wern't even going out yet or anything, I just wanted to see him, mainly because I thought he was the cutest thing on two feet. Anways he did show up and I seem to remember we spent a few awkward minutes in the hot tub. For me anyways, because I was very shy and although I wanted to get to know him, I didn't know what to say to him. Same thing happened at the school dance. All I could say was "What's up?" and then I was too embarrased to talk to him. I don't even think we got around to having a dance. 

And then there was the incident with the window. He got rather pissed off at a teacher one day and decided that instead of punching the teacher out he would punch out a window instead. Now our windows were the kind that were reinforced with wire mesh (for lack of a better description) inside the glass. So you can guess the mayhem that would cause if you put your arm through it. Anyways, I saw this track of blood dripping down the hallway and found myself following it to the councillor's office where I think it was his little sister who told me what he had done. It was maybe a few nights after that when I got a call from him asking if I wanted to go to the movie, but my dad would't let me.

There was something else at our school, it was called PEP and I can't remember what it stood for but there was a little office with a couch and we used to hang out there alot too. I guess it was obvious to everyone else that we ought to be going out because I had left my stack of books on that couch one day and somebody, I'm not even sure who, slipped a note into one of them, something to the effect of "If you want to go out with him just ask him." Basically you know you want to so just get it over with. So I guess this is where the basketball game and the circus comes into the story. But my sister was at the circus with us so that doesn't count as a real date. (By the way I think we probably have both of those notes kicking around here somewhere, it's amazing the things we have kept over the years). But it wasn't too long after that, (I don't think) that he called me up again because he had won tickets to a hockey game and this time I got to go. I must have told my dad that it was nothing serious to keep him off my case, but he found out at awards night anyways. As it happens we both won the same award, the Jostens Award for Achievement. So we are up there accepting our awards, (which just happens to be awarded to us by the school councillor who we had spent many a conversation with regarding the fact that I needed to admit to my dad that I had a boyfriend) and he lets the cat out of the bag for me right there in front of the entire school. Maybe it was better that way. Anyways, my dad took me aside that evening and we had a talk. 

And the rest is history... We moved in together, got married, had a kid, bought a house, had another kid and that brings you right up to this very day.